Romance and adventure in the Middle East.

I’ll be honest: when it comes to travel, I’ve always been a DIY kind-of gal. I’ve spent hours scouring websites for airline deals, and I’ve plunged the depths of accommodation reviews. Doing the legwork had never been an issue for me… until it came time to book a honeymoon in Israel. Holy moly. Enter the secret sauce for a honeymoon that is both unforgettable and hassle-free: an amazing travel agent.

But, isn’t that more expensive?

Contrary to “popular” wisdom: no. We made a half-hearted attempt at researching flights online ourselves, and we were horrified. They cost thousands more than we could afford, and we couldn’t even get a decent flight time or reasonable stop-over for the outlay. We couldn’t even bring ourselves to look at the accommodation. It was right then and there that we knew we needed to call in an expert.

Through our amazing travel agent, we managed to save at least a few grand on flights alone, and likely even more on top of that with accommodation and travel insurance. Maybe, now and then, the savvy traveller can find a bargain flight online that suits their needs precisely, but for us? The agent definitely got us the better deal.

How does it work?

We reached out to Lolo Trendell, at Trendell & Turner Travel Associates, via email (her details are at the bottom of this post). I gave her a basic rundown of our vision for the honeymoon (an adventure for two young newlyweds in Israel), what we thought we might like to do (museums, historical sites, bars and restaurants), and a rough idea of the specs (approx. 10 days, mid-range-flexible on budget).

She came back to us very quickly, and asked a couple more questions. Once she had everything she needed, quick as a flash, she delivered a wonderful all-inclusive itinerary into our inboxes. What’s more, bless her cotton socks, she let us tweak it as much as we wanted before locking it in. We weren’t beholden to the first thing that we saw, and we had ample opportunity to think it over. She was incredibly patient with us, and it was very much appreciated. (It wasn’t just us, come to that: she also took questions and input from both sets of in-laws in stride!)

Once we were ready to book, Lolo hit the big green button and sent us an email straight away to confirm. She also mailed to us a beautiful portfolio case with all of our hard-copy travel documents, and important travel information (insurance policies, emergency contact details, etc.). We had everything we needed ready to go, well in advance of even starting to pack!

What else did you get out of it?

Good lord, where to start? An abbreviated list…

Not only were the flights much cheaper, but Lolo found ones that were a thousand times better in every other respect as well. It was a two-leg journey (as opposed to the three- or four-legs we were looking at ourselves), with a perfectly timed stopover in Hong Kong. The outbound journey was back-to-back night flights as well, which is pretty much the dream!

Our amazing travel agent worked to our specific preferences (including budget), and was more than happy to adjust the itinerary as necessary. It’s a level of personalised service that you just can’t get through a robot.

We had the security of a customer advocate in our corner: if something had gone terribly wrong (a cancelled flight, a meteor hitting the hotel, whatever), we knew Lolo was just one call away. Plus, we were covered under the Travel Associates T&Cs. This saved us about a decade’s worth of trawling through the fine print of every single provider, making sure there was nothing that could come back to bite us.

And the most important benefit: the time saving. Planning the wedding and dealing with other major life upheavals at the time was all-consuming. The average traveller spends over 30 hours researching and booking online for themselves. Lolo took care of everything, and our only time expenditure was firing off a couple emails.

Ultimately, we spent less money and less of our own precious time. In return, we got an unforgettable honeymoon to kick off a lifetime of happy memories. You can’t do better than that!

So, where do you find an amazing travel agent?

What’s the best way to find anything? Word of mouth! Lolo came to us very highly recommended: my parents have been booking travel through her for over seven years. Indeed, she has 18 years experience in the travel industry, and is honestly one of the friendliest and most professional service providers I have ever encountered. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever book a holiday myself again; an amazing travel agent makes all the difference. So I want to pay it forward!